Half-Marathon: Check

Back in December my wife caught me complaining about how out of shape I am. She then kicked me in the butt, told me to stop complaining, and do something about it. I have a hard time staying in shape, or at least moderately in shape, if I don't have something immediately threatening me. You would think a long and healthy life would be enough motivation, but I don't think I am alone on this one. So, the day before registration closed I signed up for the Canyonlands Half-Marathon in Moab. Awesome! Now I have get to train.

My training started off well. Starting off with 3 miles I was able to build to 6.5 miles within a couple weeks. Then I took a couple week break and February passed with me running maybe once a week. Then March rolled around and panic set in and I made it to 9.5 miles and pretty much stopped there.

March 17th and the time to pack up the family and head to moab arrived much sooner than desired. The race was on the 19th. The day before we decided to hike to Delicate Arch, which is always amazing, but maybe not the best idea the day before a race and with a 27 pound child strapped to your back. The hike went well, but I decided to take it easy the rest of the day.

We made it safely back to the trail head without any harm, but I knew I would have some soreness the next 

day.

Race day arrived and I didn't have as much soreness as I thought I would. My biggest fear was that my body wouldn't hold up. Around mile 6 my fear came true and my hip started giving out on me a bit. Every half mile I had to stop and stretch in order to continue. Around mile 9 I finally stopped and had a really good stretch and I didn't have to stop again...to stretch my hip. Fighting my hip wore me out and I slowed down considerably in the last two miles. Coming around the last turn I could see the finish line, but it seemed like at was still miles away. I still made though. Crossing the finish line I swore I never would run a race again. Though I would like to consider myself a man of my word, now that the soreness is starting to wear off I am reconsidering that oath.

 2 hrs 7 mins 39 secs

We Used To Wait

There's no more waiting for Arcade Fire. I just wanted to take a moment blog post to pay tribute to this year's Album of the Year: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. When I saw that Aracde Fire was nominated for Album of the Year I was pretty excited, but based on past winners and who they were up against, I thought they were a long shot. The Suburbs has been in my rotation pretty much since the day it was released in August. For a lot of people, the first listen may not pull them in, but once you give it a couple of runs it is pretty much infectious. I was glad to see the status quo be broken last night and it seems that we might be entering a new generation of music. Here's to Arcade Fire:



In case you want a little more Arcade Fire awesomeness. Here's a cool experiment that was done with Google a while back.

What is DSLR?

Digital Single Lens Reflex. That is what DSLR stands for. You may have always known that, but I didn't. I recently figured that out and then I wondered why the "big" cameras were called that. With everyone buying a DSLR these days I figured I would share my new found knowledge. Here is what I have learned. The name comes from the fact that there is a mirror in the camera that reflects the image coming from the camera lens to the view finder. You can see the mirror when you take the lens off (be careful to not let ANYTHING fall into that space, because I have been told it is very hard to clean). This is why on most DSLRs you have to look through the viewfinder to see what you are taking a picture of. Most point-and-shoot cameras don't even have a viewfinder and you just look at the lcd to frame your shot. When you take a picture with a DSLR you will notice that the viewfinder goes dark for a fraction of a second (or longer depending on your shutter speed). This is because the mirror that is reflecting the image to the viewfinder drops down to expose the sensor. The sensor is the key element to any camera. The sensor is what determines the image quality (i.e. pixels, how much light is captured, video framerate) and that is what mostly determines the price. Crop factor is also determined by the sensor. Crop factor is just how much of the frame cropped. The larger the crop factor the less you will be able to fit into the frame. The Canon T2i has a 1.6x crop factor. The Canon 5D Mark II has a full frame sensor. Instead of me rambling on some more listen to the folks from Vimeo explain all this.

EPIC Tarp Surfing

Back in July of 2010 a couple of creative Santa Cruz boys released a video to YouTube that quickly went viral. There is even a website dedicated to tarp surfing. This new "sport" is quickly depleting home improvement stores of tarps and taking the streets by storm. I have yet to experience tarp surfing, but I look forward to the day when I can shred some tarp. Here is a look at the latest YouTube tarp surfing sensation.

Just Another Day

So, my son and I had an afternoon together and I decided to have a little fun (maybe not so much fun for him). This video is very rough and I am still getting use to shooting video on a DSLR (not that I was experienced on anything else). The shots were mostly taken on the fly, if you can't tell by my shadow in a lot of the shots. This made for a fun little afternoon and some practice. (Please pardon the very brief toddler nudity)



Filmed on a Canon T2i at 720p and 60 fps. The majority was filmed using the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.5 lens. A couple of scenes were done with the 50mm f/1.8 lens. Song: We Will Become Silhouettes Artist: The Postal Service. 

Let's Build Something

So, I have had the itch to build something lately. This all started with the purchase of a new camera, as I have already mentioned. I recently learned about the company Glidecam and I think they have pretty really cool products. My curiosity got the best of me when I watched this video

I wondered how did they get those amazingly smooth shots? There are no tracks on the ground and the camera moves almost 360 degrees around the dancer without shaking. Well, after a little research I learned that this little device is the key

The beginning of my obsession. Just watch some more of Devin's videos and see how he has perfected the Glidecam Art (yes, it is an art).  I started watching lots of videos on the glidecam to learn more about how it worked and what situations where best to use it in (pretty much any situation). I have become enthralled with Devin Graham's videos (producer of the video above). I know that Devin is in and out of Utah and I would LOVE to join him on a shoot sometime (maybe he will read this...). This led me to wanting to learn more about dslr video. I watched way to many videos on Vimeo about dlsr video tips and tricks, which led me to a whole bunch of DIY videos. These videos all had to do with accessories and equipment to help you get better (smoother) video shots.

Being near the end of a master's program and in a mad rush to get everything done before graduation is not the right time to pick up a new hobby or take on new projects, but I have. I hope someday to find enough time to get the amount of footage necessary to produce a good 2 minute video.  So, to distract myself until that day, I decided to try and copy one of Glidecam's simpler designs and build this

Sure, I don't know if I will ever use it, but it will be fun to build and hopefully it does get some use. I have already drawn up all the plans and completed the base part that allows the whole thing to swivel. The next step is getting the tubing and having some welding done. I have to get this done before I graduate; while I still have access to the machine shop at school. I figure I can build this for much much cheaper than what Glidecam wants and have fairly similar performance. Stay tuned for the completion.

First "Photo-shoot"

This weekend I had the flattering opportunity to have my first photo experiment. It was definitely an experiment, but I feel it turned out well. After watching some youtube tutorials on lighting I borrowed a reflector from my friend and set out on the streets of Provo to take some maternity photos of my wife's best friend.

With a little bit of photoshop tweaks (mostly just lighting adjustment) here is what I came out with (my wife definitely deserves some credit for composition on most of these along with editing):

Canon T2i w/ 50mm f/1.8 Lens

Settings for all photos: WB-Shade; Style-Normal (3,0,0,0); ISO-400